Sunday, January 09, 2005

Just messing with my fonts

I think it might look better with a slightly smaller font.

Things They Should Invent

Someone should create a perfectly legitimate store called The Black Market.
To up the irony quotient, this name should be applied to a government-owned
and -operated store.

"Miss"?

One thing I don't understand is why some young men (generally athletic types) would use "Miss" to refer to a woman, especially an older woman, in a position of authority. Particularly when her position of authority confers upon her a ready-made title.

For example, one of my classmates, who can't be older than 20, calls our prof "Miss", even though she is definitely over 30, and most likely around 40. Why not call her "Professor?" (She is, in fact, an official professor, albeit a visiting professor, with a doctorate and everything). And once when I was in 4th year there were some police officers on our campus (long irrelevant story). One of my co-workers, who was probably 23/24 at the time, went up to one of the officers (I don't know how old she was) and addressed her as "Miss". Whatever happened to "Officer"? I thought that was the standard way to address police officers.

They seem to be attempting to use it as a sign of respect, because I have seen instances where people who address women in authority as "Miss" would address a strange woman they perceive as an equal without calling her anything - just like you'd address a casual acquaintance or a random classmate. It's also strange in that it seems to come from younger men. Ever since I started dressing in office clothes and walking around with an official security clearance badge, older men who need to at least go through the motions of perceiving me to be in authority (i.e. situations where I'm the customer, or random citizens coming into the building asking for directions) always address me as "Ma'am". I still get "Miss" sometimes when I'm dressed casually, low-rise jeans with my hair long, but that's what I get for dressing like a teenager. However, it doesn't feel like a sign of respect when it's said to me - it feels like a socially acceptable substitute for "Random girl whose name I don't know and upon whom I don't care to confer any more respect than strictly necessary". So I wonder what led this certain demographic of young men to believe that "Miss" is an acceptable way to address a woman in authority?

Saturday, January 08, 2005

New Template

I am experimenting with a new template. I have also enabled Blogger comments instead of Blogback - people should be allowed to post anonymously, but I would politely ask that anonymous posters provide a name or alias and use it consistently. I may yet choose to revert to the old look. Any thoughts on the matter are welcome.

Crossing California by Adam Langer

Despite the title Crossing California, it is not about California. It's about three Jewish families in Chicago during the Iranian hostage crisis (which is used as a timeline for the book, but has very little to do with the plot itself).

I really enjoyed this book because of its realism. Although all the characters go through major life changes as the story progresses, they have also gone through major changes before the beginning of the book, and more major changes are on their way after the end of the book. It isn't some magical year where all the drama in everyone's life occurs and then resolves itself.

The characters are complex - they all have some flaws, and they all have some elements that make them sympathetic. All the characters are sort of making up life as they go along - trying to be the person they want other people to think they are, even though they're not quite sure what they're doing. Although the lives of the three key families are intertwined, they aren't thoroughly enmeshed like a happy little sitcom cast; it's just the level of connection that comes from growing up in the same neighbourhood and belonging to the same temple.

There's just one thing that made this book feel less than perfectly realistic to me, and that's the fact that all the teenage characters (who range in age from 13-17) can leave their homes and wander the streets of Chicago in the middle of the night and their parents don't care. And then there's the unfortunate plot device where a single father has sex with his girlfriend in the one-bedroom apartment he shares with his two daughters, instead of in the house she has all to herself just a couple of blocks away. These things did take away from it, but on the whole it's a beautifully crafted book and refreshing in its realism.

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Bodegas Piqueras Castillo de Almansa

Bodegas Piqueras Castillo de Almansa is very much a carnivore's wine. It is rich and spicy and complex and oaky, and would go well with a big slab of dead something cooked over a fire. But since I'm a vegetarian, I'll have to get some really hardcore cheese or something. It is also the single most beautiful shade of red I've ever seen. I want to get married in a dress the colour of the single stray drop clinging to the side of the bottle.

Ickiness

WARNING! (UWAGA!) Buckwheat honey sounds like a good idea, but it's
disgusting! It smells like a horse, and tastes like the smell of a horse.
I had one mouthful in a peanut butter and honey sandwich, and I had to spit
it out and throw out the sandwich and the rest of the honey because it was
so disgusting

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Blog layout angst

Any design geeks out there? As I mentioned before, I have started adding titles to my blog posts. However, my layout predates titles, and I'm rather attached to my layout and not to fond of any of the layouts currently available. So I need appropriate fonts for post titles and dates. I want the titles to be no bigger than my current date headers, and the dates should either be above the post titles (but in a smaller font) or perhaps in the bottom where it says the post time. Preferences? Any suggestions for good font sizes and attributes for doing this?
There's this thing on TV: "OMG, there might be foreign submarines sailing
around in the northwest passage! OMG! Canada could lose the northwest
passage!"

Turns out "Lose the northwest passage" means "If foreign vessels sail
unhindered through the northwest passage for 50 continuous years, then it
may be considered through legal precedent as international waters."

I think the introduction was just a tad sensationalist?

Things they should invent: personal medical priority record

There's an episode of MASH where Charles works really hard to save this
guy's legs, and is thereby unable to completely restore the nerves in his
hands. Then when the guy wakes up, they find out he's a concert pianist.

I think I'd rather have my hands saved than my legs if it came down to that
since my livelihood, major recreation, and a big chunk of my social life all
depend on my ability to type. However, a doctor would have no way of
knowing this. Therefore, they should come up with a way of having the
patient's priorities listed in their OHIP record. So if I were injured and
unconscious and admitted to the hospital, all they'd have to do is swipe my
health card or look my name up in the computer, and they could find out that
I'd rather have my hands saved than my legs, my right eye is more important
than my left eye, I'm allergic to erythromycin, I really would not mind at
all if I were left infertile, I'd prefer vegetarian drugs if at all possible
but it isn't a matter of religious conviction, I don't want to be given any
religious last rites at all, and I want to be an organ and tissue donor
despite any protest from my next-of-kin.

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Tsunami charity challenge

It's a bit late and this isn't the most appropriate medium ever, but I'm going to issue my challenge nonetheless:

If you receive gifts for xmas, I challenge you to donate to the relief charity of your choice the sum total of a) all the cash gifts you've received, b) the value of all the gift certificates you've received, and c) the cash value of any gifts that you've returned for a refund.

It's an easy way to make a generous donation, and you'll be no worse off than you were before xmas.

And remember, if you donate to a Canadian charity before Jan. 11, the federal government will match your donation!

Be it resolved...

I don't usually make resolutions. However, I don't usually wake up every morning to a death toll being announced, so things are not typical around here. Ergo, the few resolutions I have made:

1. Add titles to my blog posts
2. Read more non-fiction
3. Make a point of doing standard smilie socializing with co-workers, especially those of my demographic
4. Whenever I notice a behaviour I don't like in others, figure out a way to avoid reproducing it myself
5. Eventually come up with a strategy to keep my physical, mental and emotional state from interfering with my work. In other words, figure out how to work well when I'm having a bad day. (This is the hard one).
Today I had to talk to my co-worker "Bob", so I walked over to Bob's
cubicle, knocked, and poked my head in. However, another co-worker (whose
cubicle this isn't) was sitting there at Bob's desk. In a fit of
brilliance, I said, "You're not Bob!"

It later occurred to me that we can draw upon this experience to introduce a
little surrealism into our workday. All we have to do is find someone who
is sitting at their own desk like usual, walk into their cube, and say
"You're not Bob!"



Monday, January 03, 2005

Overheard:

"It's called Europe for a reason!"
- an early-adolescent boy on the subway, speaking in a "Well, duh!" tone of
voice. I didn't catch the context of the statement.

Henry of Pelham Reserve Riesling is bright, fruity and dry. Despite the
tangy dryness, it's highly drinkable and very refreshing, while remaining
strong enough to pair with more aggressive foods. I like it!

So they found NO dead animals in the tsunami. I have therefore invented a
tsunami early warning system. All they need to do is microchip a
representative sample of animals and track those microchips on a GPS. When
ALL the animals start running uphill, sound the tsunami warning!

Last night I dreamed that I had a summer job working at a grocery store that
kept being attacked by terrorists. Whenever the store was attacked by
terrorists, I had to sneak out the loading dock and run to the grocery store
next door, which contained a police station. After this happened a few
times, it occurred to me that maybe it isn't worth being attacked by
terrorists every day for the mere pittance one makes working at a grocery
store. After all, I still had a full-time job earning a professional salary
(i.e. my real-life job), and I really didn't need the extra money. But
whenever I brought up the possibility of quitting my grocery-store job,
people would accuse me of being a spoiled lazy ungrateful brat for thinking
that I'm somehow entitled to be excused from the requirement to have a
summer job.

As I was flipping channels, I stumbled upon a clip of Martha Stewart cooking
with Cookie Monster. Now THAT I'd watch!

The one thing I still want to know that the newspapers haven't told me: how
far inland did the tsunami waters reach?